If you somehow slept through the 1990's without ever seeing Poster Children play, you done goofed up. The band was well known for their turbo-charged live shows, playing marathon sets while barely surfacing for air. I was lucky enough to share a stage with them a couple times in Lawrence, KS back in the day and was more than happy to have my band's set completely burnt to a crisp by one of the sharpest (and friendliest) live bands around.

The band haven't released a record since 2004, but guitarist Rick Valentin and bassist Rose Marshack have continued to keep busy with their Radio Zero podcast. Thankfully, the band is celebrating the 25th anniversary of 1991's Daisychain Reaction this year with a vinyl reissue (on Lotuspool Records, no less!) and hitting the road for some live dates on the east and west coasts. Dates below.

There's something incredibly magical about a one-shot music video. No edits, no cuts, just one take. Destroy something (in this case, archaic technology) in the process and give it a blistering soundtrack. There's no better way to make a music video. (See "Bastards of Young") Head Wound City knows this, and made this because it's perfect. Buy their new record here.

Bon Iver shared a 22 second clip on YouTube today, entitled "22 Days". It's a beautiful ambient loop that cuts off right as Justin Vernon's vocals come in, and serves as what is believed to be a teaser for a set of all new music at the Eaux Claires music festival (curated by Vernon and The National's Aaron Dessner) on August 12-13 in Eaux Claire, Wisconsin.

After 4 months of a long and bumpy ride, the wheels finally fell off the wagon and crashed and burned. A search party was sent to Monkey Island to scan the wreckage for survivors and only found Barry Hogan/ATP collecting bits of luggage and body parts for his next show “ATP 3.0 The 90’s Deconstructed”. Tickets on sale now at Gofundme.comIt’s a uniquely cruel hoax to appeal to Drive Like Jehu’s ego and ask us to create a program based on personally inviting the bands and musicians that have inspired us and changed the way we hear music and then subject them and their supporters to this. We really wanted this show to happen more than anything. It had all the makings of a legendary weekend. We were so committed to seeing this through that we remained hopeful (blind in retrospect) amongst the ritualistic turmoil and crisis and trusted their solutions that would ensure that the show would definitely go on and the attendees would be treated fairly and the bands would be respected and celebrated. I realize people want answers. I have found out about most of the information involving the problems that plagued this from the start the same way as everyone else. And although the internet is hardly a reliable source for fact, this whole mess has the extra sting of this not being an isolated incident. 48 hours ago word started to trickle in that Barry hadn’t honored his agreement with many of the bands. These bands were not canceling, but rather did not have the promised means to attend. It was only then revealed that ATP was unable to honor the agreement with the ticket holders that purchased accommodation. ATP is out of funds. ATP offered to postpone the event until November as a solution. No thanks. We looked into trying to salvage the weekend by putting on our own free show in Manchester. But at this late date, no suitable venue is available. This affects the Swami John Reis & The Blind Shake shows that were to follow ATP as well. We are unable to come over at this time. To all the bands and ticket holders, i couldn’t feel more terrible that the fest isn’t happening. We were willing to come over under any circumstance even if it meant we would not get paid, just to see this show happen. I wish i could give you more answers at this point and advice what to do next.

It's a pretty massive bummer for any festival (minus maybe Coachella) to fall apart, but when Drive Like Jehu has pulled all of the talent together, it's a gigantic wasted opportunity.

Meanwhile, Swami John Reis and Metz just released a collaborative 7" for Record Store Day. The first sample of the madness that lies within is here, and will hopefully brighten your day just a touch.

I've been pretty het up about the White Denim/Sam Cohen package tour since it was announced months ago. As far as complimentary match-ups, getting these two together for a tour is a mind-bogglingly great pairing of chops and songwriting skills. Sam Cohen (formerly of Apollo Sunshine and Yellowbirds, and also a guest of TRB podcast) released one of my favorite records of 2015 (Cool It), and handles mellow psychedelia and explosive sunshine-y pop territory with equal aplomb, gracefully warming up the mellow Monday crowd into a raucous (for Seattle) throng by the end of his spacious set.

If our good friend The Internet has provided us anything great along with the giant glut of daily distractions, it's the ability to get some deep insight into the creative processes of our favorite artists. I was a big fan of the work of power pop giants Superdrag back in the day, but it's been incredible to be on board with the new creative bloom of frontman John Davis as he works on new music for his current main project, The Lees of Memory. Davis is as vibrant and excited about writing songs as he is sharing the process with his fanbase, and manages to share photos of his mountains of gear and the home demo'ing process, tracking in the studio with the rest of the band, his paintings and strolls down memory lane to his earlier years without teetering into oversharing territory. Davis is also an avid user of Bandcamp, and has dropped loads of 4-track demos, covers, B-sides and other hidden gems onto his High Bias site (most for cheap or free). The Lees of Memory are in the process of finishing up album no. 2, and Davis recently posted Cobalt and Chrome, a collection of songs that were demoed but didn't make the cut. As per usual, Davis' scraps are a feast for the rest of us. Stretch out your downloading finger and go get some treats.

These two smiling men are responsible for a spike in Immodium sales in the late 1990's.

Ah, the silky mystique of "The Brown Note"; That earth-shattering, pants-splattering frequency zone where sounds manage to weave their way inside of you, stir up the most delicate parts of your inner-workings and rally the troops to abandon ship. While I never had a chance to see godheadSilo back in their heyday, I read enough zine articles and heard enough pre-internet folklore about the band to know that their live shows were widely regarded as a punishing display of sound and fury that left members of the audience walking away feeling nauseous. That two men could create a literal wall of sludge so physically affecting (minus the aid of computers/laptops, but merely aided by a wall of bass amps and a ridiculously large drum kit) was the stuff of legend. Their records required warning labels stating "we are not responsible for speaker damage", with more pre-internet rumblings of the band's records being engineered to essentially crack speakers in half. While the teens of the 70's had KISS to worship as a larger-than-life rock band shrouded in secrecy, godheadSilo had a lovely mystique of their own in the mid/late-90's.

Austin, Texas' soul-psych-sters White Denim recently announced their new album (Stiff, out 3/25/16 via Downtown Records) and released their first single, "Holda You (I'm Psycho)". It doesn't sound like a curveball from the band's previous trajectory, but definitely finds the band's noodle-y jam band guitars soaked liberally in near fatal doses of caffeinated energy.

The band also just announced a pretty extensive US tour where they'll be joined by Royal Basement podcasteeSam Cohen on most dates. If you like guitars and miss this tour, you done goofed. Tour dates are as follows:

2015 wasn't a bad year for The Royal Basement, by any means. I've had some inspiring chats with some incredible folks. I've taken a "news" hiatus over the last few months due to busy times with various holidays, other projects (working on an album, playing drums with Ghost Pains) and a pretty intense trip to Kansas City for most of the month of October to catch a Boys Life reunion and ending with a Kansas City Royals World Series victory. I was lucky enough to watch all of the ALCS and World Series back in my hometown of Kansas City, surrounded by the absolutely insane and exhausting energy of playoff baseball and mounds of fantastic Kansas City barbecue. (I was in KC for 18 days, and I believe I had various forms of BBQ for 15 meals over the course of those 18 days, cholesterol be damned.) Basically, normal life stopped for a good portion of the month of October, and baseball took over. Tears were shed, and my beloved Royals won the World Series. Writing that still doesn't even feel real.

2015 was a pretty grand year for musical output, as well. While I can't say that any records I've heard this year were life-defining records (those come fewer and farther between after your 20's), I'm thrilled with the wide range of things that fell into my ears this year. I found myself with a list of about 40 things that I had spent varying degrees of significant time with, trying to whittle them down to a nice round "top ten". Here's what I came up with.

It was a big weekend for the rocking and/or rolling in Seattle; Death Cab For Cutie played 3 days at the Paramount Theatre, My Morning Jacket did back to back nights at the Moore, and Stephen Malkmus came into town to play at the Experience Music Project's Sky Church. While Malkmus' generally disconnected demeanor didn't necessarily correspond with the immaculate polish of the EMP, it was a refreshing change to see a show in the Sky Church (a nice wide room with nary a bad sightline) and it was frankly great to see screensavers/stock photography loops blaring from the giant LED screen backdrop, glowering over the otherwise reserved Malkmus and Jicks. The last time I saw Malkmus/Jicks play, it was a TapeOp/Fort George beer release party down in Astoria, Oregon where the band played to 100 people and played a delightfully sloppy set, so seeing the Jicks on the big stage in a museum with all of the appropriate big-time-rock-n-roll trappings was the polar opposite experience of the Astoria show. I wormed my way to the front and caught "Freeze The Saints" on my phone, which is a beautiful song on its own but really sparkles in this live, stripped down setting (public school piano goof-ups and all). Hope you enjoy.

Just wrapped up the podcast that I did with UNLIKELY FRIENDS (members of BOAT and Math and Physics Club) a while back. They came by the ol' Basement and played some songs and chatted about baseball, bands, and just the love of the game (whatever the game may be). They open up for Death Cab for Cutie tonight at the Paramount here in Seattle (poster above by the fantastic Derek Erdman). Head over to the podcast page to give a listen; I recommend tailgating before the show and blasting this in the parking garage.

If there's a music documentary out there worth the film it's on, I've probably seen it. That said, I don't know that I've seen a series of live recordings that capture the atmosphere quite as well as the Live At Massey Hall series. Recorded at the 110-year-old venue in Toronto, Massey Hall is a gorgeous 2700 seat venue in the heart of downtown Toronto.

It seems like these videos are coming on a fairly regular basis, but yesterday's upload of a particularly well-polished but rough-hewn Constantines show had me feeling like it was Christmas morning. Bands at the Constantines level don't often have someone with the budget to document/edit a performance this beautifully, so I'm thrilled to see that time and energy go into a band so deserving of proper documentation (note: there's also a set from Cons frontman Bry Webb in the playlist). Do yourself a favor; plug whatever device into your TV/stereo and watch this Constantines episode on the big screen, fully amplified. You can thank me later (although I take no responsibility for damages caused by couch-bound circle pits).

Who knows what else to expect out of this series, but if the quality is anything like what's out there right now, it's going to be worth watching every single episode. Cheers to the makers of Live At Massey Hall.

The new Kurt Vile album (b'lieve i'm goin' down) is out today via Matador, and first spins showcase an album full of Vile's penchant for finger-picked crystalline lazy Sunday jams mixed with moments of spine-tingling anthemic bliss. He stopped by Conan O'Brien's show to play the first single ("Pretty Pimpin'") and do a stripped down version of "Wild Imagination". This iteration of Vile's band appears to be loaded for bear, featuring (amongst others) Farmer Dave Scher (Beachwood Sparks) on keys and backing vocals.

Kurt Vile plays the Showbox in Seattle with Cass McCombs on October 18, 2015.

The podcast is back! Episode #13 is up over on the podcast page, and features a long conversation with Sam Cohen, guitarist/songwriter/producer extraordinaire. Sam is well known for his work with Apollo Sunshine, Yellowbirds, and just released his first proper solo record (Cool It) earlier this year. Sam plays the Pickathon Festival in Portland, Oregon this weekend. Go have a listen.

Philadelphia's Kurt Vile recently announced his new album (b'lieve i'm goin down, out September 25 on Matador), but today finds him sharing the first single and video off of the record. It follows along in Vile's tradition of writing meandering, melancholy songs that center around finger-picking guitar loops, but something about this seems a lot more concise. His songs have a tendency to be built around this restless loop, perpetually moving without settling, but the extra glossy layers (and fantastic guitar textures) on top of the already crystal clear production really help make the song shine and invite multiple listens. (It's currently hitting earworm status for me.)

Vile is hitting the road in October and November to support the album. Dates behind the jump.

It's Christmas in July! (One of my favorite holidays, BTW.) Wilco just dropped a new 11 track album entitled Star Wars for the low price of FREE. For real!

"Why release an album this way and make it free? Well, the biggest reason, and I'm not sure we even need any others, is that it felt like it would be fun. What's more fun than a surprise?" said singer Jeff Tweedy via Instagram.

Star Wars is available for free here, provided you want to give Wilco your email address. They've had mine for years and I've never gotten so much as a late night drunk email from them. Legitimate.

Wilco is on tour now, probably coming to a city near you. Go see them and bring your favorite Jar Jar Binks joke.

There are those band break-ups that you can spot coming from a mile away, and those that blindside you. Somewhere in between lies the news of the disbanding of Canadian folk/punk mainstays The Weakerthans. The band hasn't been the most active in the past 8 years or so, but have still done some festival circuit touring (as well as singer John K. Samson's excellent 2012 solo record Provincial) and never really hinted at any sort of band conflict.

Dan Ozzi at Vice did an excellent job eulogizing the band, but I still feel the need to put my two cents in about the band. When explained on paper, The Weakerthans seem as if they're directed right into that sappy, primordial sludge that is the world of 2000's emo punk. Melodic pop-leaning songs sung by humble guys who buy their sweaters a couple sizes too big so they can wear their heart on their sleeves just a little bit more prominently. (Even writing that grosses me out.) Something about The Weakerthans was different, though. While the music may not have thrown a ton of challenges into the fray, John Samson's lyrics are flat out masterpieces. Maybe it was the phase of my life I was in (leaving college, joining the work force, finally becoming a grown adult and dealing with the gravity of family getting older, growing away from friends, the blessing/curse of unaccounted-for time, and that pining for home that we all fight for the rest of our lives after leaving the nest), but Samson's lyrics summarized so much of what I was feeling at that moment in so much more beautiful and poetic ways than I was ever capable of. He never wrote songs from some overly dramatic, damaged place like so many bands did. He never sounded desperate. He always sounded dignified.

Australia's Tame Impala have a new album due out July 17th (Friday release dates, y'all!), and have released a smattering of singles (literally, half the album is already out) to tease the highly-anticipated 'Currents'.

Tame Impala has been playing the festival circuit all summer, and put on an incredible show at Sasquatch in June that felt absolutely massive and perfect; the sun was setting behind the band, cascading through the breathtaking surroundings of The Gorge, and the combination of the band's light show, the gauzy haze of smoke coming from both the stage and the crowd, and the wall of sound coming from the giant PA made for an event that I'll personally never forget. That said, the band didn't play too much off the new album, which shows them either keeping Currents pretty close to their vest or being a little apprehensive about unveiling it to a festival crowd. It's a divisive album for fans of the band's early days of heady psych.

While some of the bass tones (and that bass playing, holy cow) on Currents harken back to the fuzzed out bliss of Innerspeaker, the rest of the band's compositions rely less than ever on typical rock guitar/bass/drums arrangements and now hinge on massive layers of plinky keyboards and compressed, mechanical sounding drums (as well as Kevin Parker's soft falsetto). Tame Impala has always been pretty much a one-man show (mastermind Kevin Parker recorded/mixed the record by himself), but Currents is his most visible artistic/personal struggle. The great deal of Currents is about conflict; conflict with a former lover, conflict with himself, and the knowledge that this record will create conflict within his own fanbase. Parker spends the entirety of Currents wrestling with his confidence to pursue this new direction in sound ("Let It Happen" is essentially a mantra of chasing the muse into uncharted/uncomfortable territory, knowing full well that he could be failing those whose support has given him a career), while other songs hang on the notion of coming to terms with a failed relationship ("Yes I'm Changing", "Eventually"), falling into an almost frustrating loop of daily-affirmations that spend an inordinate amount of time justifying a breakup with storybook endings.

Parker has been quoted talking about an experience driving around Los Angeles, listening to the Bee Gees under the affect of mushrooms. That experience seems to be a giant resonating factor within Currents; disco beats with swirling layers of psychedelic elements interwoven in the songs, dance music with an emotional edge. Structurally, it's a gorgeous album full of texture that obviously took a lot of time to build and craft. It's also a fun listen; each spin reveals new details that weren't previously noticeable. Parker has a gift for making everything sound so effortless, both compositionally and performance-wise, and coats everything in such a branded Tame Impala production style (Parker mixed Currents by himself, marking the first time Tame Impala has made a record without Dave Fridmann) that the album flows along breezily without ever feeling like a chore. In that, though, fans of Parker's earlier work (myself included) will find themselves fighting the feeling of this incredibly concicse pop soundscape, frustratedly longing for some of the speaker-ripping sonic bombast of Innerspeaker. For the moment, that's not where Kevin Parker is. At best, Parker is aiming high and trying to bridge the gap between 60's psych, 70's disco, and a healthy dose of 80's pop (with maybe a tiny sprinkle of contemporary dance/EDM thrown in). At worst, he's writing glossy anthems whose production makes them sound a lot better than the sum of their parts. Album closer "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" heads the "sell out" argument off right at the pass, with Parker singing "I know that you think it's fake/maybe fake's what I like", and Parker leaves himself an open door to do anything he wants in the name of creative freedom. If nothing else, Parker just blipped pretty significantly on the radar of a lot of important folks to produce their next album; if this ends up creating some giant psych rock renaissance in pop music, is that such a bad thing?

One thing is certain, though; Currents will be an inescapable record for the remainder of 2015.

I'll fully admit to taking The Helio Sequence's presence as a Pacific NW regional band for granted. They play Seattle pretty frequently, and I never go see them. Their consistency as a band is incredible, but somehow, their newest album (self-titled, on Sub Pop) pushes at their atmospheric edges, experimenting with electronic elements but still retaining an organic/human foundation. At times, the record finds The Helio Sequence sounding more relaxed yet more confident than ever. "Battle Lines" marches along stridently while still retaining a breezy, shimmery atmosphere, pining for the promise of a better day (and remaining optimistically hopeful in the process). The entire record is a great summer soundtrack, urgent in all the right places but still wistfully relaxed.